"With What Little Silver She Had" - Female Evacuees of April 19th and Personal Property

Research conducted by historian Mary Fuhrer suggests ownership of luxury items in Lexington, including gold, silver, pewter, brass, clocks, and looking glasses soared after 1750. When Lydia Mulliken’s husband died in 1768, an inventory of his estate revealed that they had gathered several markers of taste and fashion. When Anna Munroe married innkeeper William in 1767, she reportedly brought to the marriage a “Round mahogany table, two arm-chairs, looking-glass, hat-tree, Britannia teapot, silver tablespoon and . . . [a] pewter candlestick.” William’s brother Edmund Munroe had built up a goodly fortune trading in furs before his marriage to Rebecca Harrington, and he titled himself a “gentleman.” Together the couple acquired pewter, brass, glass, china, tea board, tea table, “a number of picters,” mahogany tables, chests of drawers, looking glasses, silver spoons, punch bowls, brass ink horns and an extensive line of linens. Rebecca’s parents kept pace with their daughter. Following the Battles of Lexington and Concord Rebecca’s parents submitted to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress a claim that included the loss of over £50 worth of textiles, including one “fine India dark gown,” one “striped English cotton gown”, an expensive eight-day tall case clock valued at at £15, three large mirrors, and teapots.

When many of women of Lexington fled their homes on April 19, 1775, they either carried off with them or scrambled to hide personal valuables. Why?

 It appears part of the motivation may have to do with Massachusetts colonial inheritance laws. While all property technically belonged to the husband, household movables such as textiles, furniture, the tools of domestic production, silverware and dishes were generally passed from generation to generation through the female line and were considered properly part of women’s domestic sphere. For example, Hannah Stone, bequeathed almost the whole of her personal estate “to my beloved daughter Tabitha Merriam.” Hannah Stearns willed to her daughter-in-law Patty her porridge pot and flat irons. Abigail Bridge left her riding hood to one daughter-in-law and a dark calico gown to another.

Thus, a woman’s household goods were her closest connection to lawful possessions and thus gave her a sense of ownership.  This perception would be severely undermined or destroyed if her personal possessions were stolen by marauding British troops.  

Given the above, what were some of the items civilian evacuees hid or carried off when they left their homes? The Reverend Jonas Clarke’s family hid “money, watches, and anything down in the potatoes.” Lydia Mulliken and her daughters, who lived along the Boston road, heard the alarm and hurriedly buried the family’s silver and other valuables by a stone wall near their clock shop, then fled to distant safety.” According to one account, A Lincoln evacuee carried off “the large family Bible, a loaf of bread . . . a looking glass, [and] with what little silver she had.” Finally, two of Jonathan Loring’s daughters hid the communion silver in a brush heap in back of the house before fleeing.